Thumbs Down Emoji

When my cousin texted on Monday asking if I wanted to go to Game 4 with him and his wife it didn’t take long to respond—Yes! They live in Houston, season ticket holders for the Texans, and are the kind of dedicated sports fans who love rooting their teams on but don’t lose sleep when they lose. They wore Astros hats and orange jackets last night while I sported a crumbling El Duque Yankee T-shirt over a long sleeve shirt just so I wasn’t associated too closely with the enemy.

Scorecard in my lap.

Funny how games are always harder to follow when you are there. There was that strange sequence of events with Aaron Judge in the fourth—and later, was that fan interference on his double, and if so what did that mean? We didn’t have TV screens near us so it was all unclear. All we could tell was that there was some low comedy—a ground ball slowly rolling up the third baseline, sure to stay fair, that kicked foul at just the last minute and was snatched by Todd Frazier, and a pair of bumbling errors by Starlin Castro. Later on, of course, Chase Headley slipped on a banana peel rounding first and turned excitement into peril into relief when he recovered and reached second safely with a deft tag.

The Astros struck first with a bases clearing double after the Yanks had loaded them on a couple of walks and an error. They added another on Castro’s second Benny Hill move. And so my cousins were feeling good, their boys up 4-0.

Now, I am not an In-Your-Face kind of rooter. Not unless provoked I suppose. So it wasn’t as if there was any trash talking going on. But a rowdy Yankee crowd was quieted. It was the simmering quiet of angry New Yorkers.

And while we saw some other Astros fans they were not a noisy bunch.

Once Aaron Judge hit a moonshot to start the seventh, the crowd woke up, and you can say it didn’t relent until after the final out, well past the moment when the Yanks scored six unanswered runs to win the game and even the series. (Final Score: Yanks 6, Astros 4.)

All I know is that it was loud. The Stadium didn’t shake the way Yankee Stadium II did—where the thrill was mixed with terror—but it was impressive. I didn’t let out one yell, I stayed calm—jumping and clapping on the inside—didn’t want to be rude to my cousins. Instead I took great satisfaction looking out over the Stadium and seeing everyone stand and waves their arms and yell and scream. My cousins left with two outs in the 9th but I stayed and after the last out put my fist out to fans passing by, enjoying the hard thump of hearty congratulations.

I stayed and listened to Sinatra and everyone sing to Sinatra on repeat. I sung a little myself.

So many big at bats, but was most thrilled for Gary Sanchez and Judge for coming through in the heat of the moment.

Today gives that sombitch Keuchel who just owns the Yanks. He’s got a beatin’ coming to him one of these days. Hopefully, that time is now. Those Astros are bound to up jump the boogie and score a bunch of runs sometime soon, too. Let’s hope that ain’t today.

237 comments

I'm sure the early start is great for all you folks in New York, but a 2:00pm start on the West Coast is less than ideal, especially since I don't work in a cubicle designed to hide internet feeds from prying eyes. I was teaching at 2:00, and while I'll admit to sneaking peaks at the score during down moments and between classes, I was pretty much in the dark for the first four or five innings.

I still wasn't free after school -- supervision duty in the tutoring center until 5:00. At least in the library I could sit and grade papers with the game on my phone sitting next to me. There's something surreal about watching a big play -- Guriel's bases loaded double -- in the complete silence of a school library.

I missed Judge's homer when a text from a friend at the game ("That didn't suck.") dropped my feed, but I watched Didi scamper around the bases with his triple, pumping my fist under the table in silent celebration.

But my battery was draining rapidly, falling into single digits, so I pocketed the game and closed down the library. By the time I was done and opened the MLB At Bat app, there were dots on second and third with no one out!

So how to balance a dying battery with a team that refused to die? Cross your fingers and hope for the best on both fronts. A few minutes later my daughter and I were sitting in the back seat of a Lyft on our way home, and the game was tied at four, the phone holding strong at 1%. Sanchez was at the plate with runners at first at third, and then the At Bat app started messing with my head:

In play, no outs.

No runs had been scored, according to the app, so for thirty seconds or so I sat there trying to imagine a scenario in which Sanchez could've put the ball in play without recording an out or plating a run. Just as my head was about to explode, the score clicked to 6-4 and there was Sanchez-shaped dot standing on second base. Silence in the back of the Lyft, bedlam in the Bronx and in my heart.

We got home in time for the last couple out of the eighth, then we watched Chapman dominate the ninth. I kinda love this team.

I too was at work in LA. Thankfully, we had a big mailing project to do, and usually I am not assigned to help but we are short handed right now. I reserved the conference room and turned on the tv, and it took 20 minutes to figure out how to get the cable to work. Thankfully, I only missed the pre-game. A new co-worker just started working with our small department a few weeks ago, and today I found out he grew up in upstate NY and was a Yankee fan too. We stuffed envelopes and took in the game and at inning breaks went back to our offices to check emails.

When the Yanks were down 4-0, I used that old Torre line. Just try to knock in two runs and cut the lead in 1/2 and that was what they did.

For the 8th and 9th, since it was now past work hours, I went to our gym in the building and turned on the tv and it was just static, after 5 minutes, I found another tv, and Frazier was already on first. Such a great AB by Headley and it reminded me of the Indians game when Knoblauch argued an interference call in 1999 and that guy flopped down on the way home and made it anyway. Headley has handled his inconsistent playing time really well, and he has such a sad face, you want to root for the guy, just to get a smile on that pathetic mug.

Judge was amazing and Sanchez delivered with the double. Gregorious going for 3rd gave me agita n the 8th.

During the broadcast they were talking about how fans at the stadium should be told what is being reviewed. It probably looked like Judge was lucky to get back and be safe and then he lost his mind and tried to steal 2nd. He almost f'n made it too.

Keuchel is one bad mofo, but I kind of think the 2nd time pitching to a team in such a short time might favor the Yanks. Either way, Giles has to be shitting himself after the Bird dinger and last night's blown save.

Poor Sonny Gray. That dude has pitched over 21 innings in the postseason and gotten o run support.

I am loving the 5:00 starts. I know it doesn't work out for everyone, though. One of the benefits of social media today is bringing the stadium experience into my house. Last night's highlights on the MLB channel show a bunch of fan videos from where they were sitting. I then saw one twitter video from a guy in the bleachers going crazy for the Yanks right after the final out. Lol.... And to hell with keuchel. Go Yankees!

During the 1996 Jeffrey Maier game, there may have been no one farther from the play than we were – last row in the upper deck, backs against the concrete, just to the 3B side of home. We didn’t know what had happened until we were in the car later listening to the radio. Live, it was just a bunch of gestures and yelling.

All I know is that it was loud. The Stadium didn’t shake the way Yankee Stadium II did—where the thrill was mixed with terror—but it was impressive.

How I wish I could bottle that old feeling. For my kids, for anyone. Or just for me to relive. A full house in the playoffs and you catch those opening notes of Sandman? Yes, Virginia, a concrete building can sway. I try to tell people about it and I just start thousand-yard staring.

I know you were talking about the architecture itself, but I think the emotional power of a crowd is the real mixture of thrill and terror. One side of that coin is a cauldron of joy and glory in the Bronx, where the only thing that gets hurt is some meatball’s ERA. The other side is Nuremburg. It’s chilling to contemplate that those two feelings may have some function of the deep, caveman brain in common. Here’s to more of the good kind.

[5] There's been enough talk about informing fans of these decisions that I think we'll likely see a change for next season. It's crazy that the only people who don't what's going on are the people who paid to be there. Just have the crew chief get on a microphone and make an announcement whenever something crazy happens. "The runner rounded second, but did not properly retrace his steps over the bag on his way back to first." Now, on that Judge play it would probably be too much to explain the whole thing, that the Yankees were trying to have him steal the bag back, but the crowd needs some kind of information.

i think that was castro's mistake. hicks probably couldn't get it, castro could but he backed off hoping hicks would make an easier catch. anyway, no harm no foul, but castro is really looking bad in the field